Re: [X] vs. [x]

On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 10:28:29 -0600, Danny Wier <dawiertx@...>
wrote:

>From: "Paul Roser" <pkroser@...>
>
>> In addition to Yupik, Inupiaq, Nivkh, and Kabyle (Berber) that Danny
>> mentioned, the Siberian language Itelmen and many, if not all, of the
>> Caucasian languages make a distinction between velar and uvular
>> fricatives, and a few also have pharyngeals as well. Burkiqan Agul (sp?)
>> has, if I recall correctly, velar, uvular, epiglottal, and pharyngeal
>> fricatives, which is probably the most distinguished by any one language.
>
>I checked the data I have (mostly found online) on North Caucasian - Ubykh
>did have velar and uvular fricatives, but the eleven other languages I know
>of (Abkhaz, Abaza, Adyghe, Kabardian, Chechen, Ingush, Avar, Lak, Dargwa,
>Lezgian, Tabasaran) don't make the distinction; the fricatives are all
>uvular. I did see something on Agul somewhere having all those guttural
>fricatives; wasn't it the UPSID survey?
I think you're right about East Caucasian in general - Agul is a special
case - but Karbardian (and Adyghe) definitely makes the distinction (and
also have labialized dorsals and a pharyngeal - /x, x^w, X, X^w, H/), and I
think that it is just one dialect of Abkhaz that makes the distinction, but
I don't have the info here at work.

http://ee.www.ee/transliteration/pdf/Kabardian.pdf

In Cyrillic <x> is velar, <x>+<tvordij znak*> is uvular. I think the hard
sign - the one that looks like a lower case b with a leftward serif - is
tvordij znak, but it's been two decades or more since I actually studied
Russian.

>
>Squamish, a Salishan language, has /x_w/, /X/ and /X_w/, but not /x/. I
>think this is the case for most languages in that family.
You might be right, but I'd have to check. But it's not the case for all
languages in that region - I believe Bella Coola/Nuxalk also has the
distinction (Nater uses the symbols <c> and <x> for velar and uvular
respectively).


Bfowol

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